“The Double Curtain”

Following the Footprints of Armin T. Wegner in Iran

Wegner dedicated six pages of his best-selling travel book, Am Kreuzweg der Welten (In the Crossroad of the Worlds), to a delightful reportage of a theatrical performance in Pahlavi (later Anzali), a Persian port city on the Caspian Sea.

Nothing unusual you would say? But, in 1927 theater was a taboo in Moslem Persia. Nonetheless, the contemporary Persian theater was slowly taking shape. Wegner, by coincidence, became a witness to a sensational play. It was a modern day love story – an almost outrageous subject back then. The stirring news had become the talk of the town.

However, Persians didn’t have their own theaters, in those days. Moslem actors usually borrowed the stage at Armenian clubs and schools, etc. Saint Mary Armenian Church in Pahlavi, built in 1874, had a small assembly room (photo). In this very room Wegner attended the show, a satiric play titled Asheghé Bicharé (The Unfortunate Lover). Wegner, an amateur actor himself, described the sold out presentation in a most amusing and entertaining language – a tiny piece of theater history – under the headline Der doppelte Vorhang (The Double Curtain). There had, indeed, been two curtains in the theater – one in the front, for the stage, and a second one was added in the back, for separating women from men, according to Islamic Law. Only after the room was darkened would the back curtain open.

Over the years, most Armenians have emigrated from Pahlavi, but that particular venue is still in operation. Beatrice Savadian, a friend of the Armin T. Wegner Society of USA, kindly photographed the ‘historic stage’ for this newsletter, when she (now a US citizen) recently visited her early life neighborhood in Pahlavi, as a tourist in Iran. The photo was taken a few days after the New Year’s Eve party. One can see the colorful decorations still hanging from the ceiling.